Harikrishna to meet L`Ami in fifth round of Tata Chess

Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands): Grandmaster and Asian champion P Harikrishna will take on Dutchman Erwin L`Ami in the fifth round of Group B match of the Tata Steel Chess tournament here.

Three victories and a draw from the first four games has put the Indian in a full point lead in the event and Harikrishna will look forward to some more good games following the first rest day.

L`Ami and Alexander Motylev of Russia are a point behind Harikrishna, while the other Indian in the fray, D Harika is on 1.5 points in the field of 14 participants.

There are nine rounds still remaining in the tournament and the pundits have put Harikrishna as one of the frontrunners for the title.

The Indian has every reason to be pleased with his games so far.

In the opener, Harikrishna put it across top seed Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba and followed it up with a win against Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine and Harika in the next two rounds. A draw with Cmilyte did not spoil his party.

Harika lost only one game so far and that is a good result considering she is one of the lowest ranked players in this section.

B Adhiban has had an expected run in Group C with two victories and two draws so far.

The former Indian champion was quite impressive in his king side assault against compatriot Sahaj Grover in the previous round.

With three points in his bag, Adhiban shares the second spot in this section along with Hans Tikkanen of Sweden. The leader here is Maxim Turov of Russia who has won all the four games so far.

Grover`s search for an elusive final Grandmaster norm continues here. The 16-year-old is a bronze medallist in the world junior championship and is way beyond the 2500 rating mark, which is necessary to become a GM but somehow, he has been missing the final norm by a whisker for some time.

After a desirous start here too, the defeat against Adhiban was a shocker for the Delhi-lad and he will again have some hard work to do to come within striking range of attaining the final GM norm.

In the next round Sahaj takes on Etienne Gourdiaan of Holland, who is the lowest ranked and will hope to pick up the lost ground.

International Master Tania Sachdev started off with three draws and it was an unexpected loss against her friend Elisabeth Paehtz in the previous round.

Tania will need a major turnaround in performance to make her presence felt here.

The premier group is interestingly poised with top two ranked players -- Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenian -- sharing the lead on three points each after four rounds.